Friday, January 25, 2013

Math homework issue in Great Britain

There is a newsitem going on in Britain at this time relating to parental involvement in math
homework and methods by which math should be taught. The article indicates that
education policy-makers in Britain are alarmed that large numbers of parents
are unable to help their children with math homework. They attribute this to
new methods of teaching math and to the possibility that the parents,
themselves, were inadequately trained in math when they were young. It suggests
there is a social “badge of honour” that some people wear regarding their
difficulties with math. It also notes that many of these math-deficient parents
have quite successful careers, but run into difficulties with ordinary math
functions, such has handle budgets, calculating change, and reading transportation
schedules. This claim seems anecdotal and not research based. It claims that
studies in the United States have shown a connection between parental
involvement and higher test scores. The references to the United States do not
appear specific to math, or involvement in the form of helping with homework.

I find this
article interesting in that it focuses on parental math skills rather than on
teaching children math in the class. It suggests that homework completion is an
end in itself, not a method toward achieving success. I don’t know all the
factors involved in how to best teach a child math, but that seems like this is
the purview of the education profession. This article could be easily read as
an indictment of the overdependence on homework as a teaching method. If
children are going home with homework they cannot do on their own without the
help of their parents, and if parents lack the skill and training to give them
the help they need, why would we continue to bank on that resource to teach our
children what they need to know? I’m a psychologist. People come to me for help
with mental and emotional problems. I don’t get calls for people needing help
with their teeth (Well, that’s not completely true. As it is, for a long time there
was a dentist, Dr. Kenneth Goldberg, who had an office across the street from
mine, so I would get calls from dental surgery patients. I was wise enough to
turn them away and not take a stab at pulling their teeth).

But think about.
Some people are not good at math. They still work and have successful careers.
They may have some difficulty with day to day tasks, and that may or may not be
related to math (I’ve never been good at budgeting and I have a master’s degree
in mathematics in addition to my doctorate in psychology). We have teachers who
are trained to teach our children. We understand that teaching is a tough job
and that the profession needs to continue to research its techniques and
advance its skills. We know that parents are vitally important to children. They
offer children different types of lessons they cannot learn at school. Their
involvement and support of education is helpful to children. Battling over
homework or struggling with things they don’t do well is not be the type of
involvement that helps education.